Good morning. Last week, we asked where you want to visit in 2026. Looking at the responses, domestic travel destinations led the way, while Italy, Ireland, and Scotland were the most prominent answers for international vacays. Some unique answers included Botswana, Azerbaijan, and Easter Island.
Also noted are the multiple responses that said some version of "not the U.S."
—Quinn Henderson, Taylor Scollon
FACTS OF INTEREST
🛢️ Venezuela’s proven oil reserves are nearly twice as large as Canada’s, but it exports fewer than one million barrels due to sanctions and underdevelopment. (Oil Slick)
🫨 A 9.0-magnitude earthquake could cost insurers ~$52.6 billion, over 11 times more expensive than the record for costliest Canadian natural disaster. (The Big One)
🛒 From 2014 to 2023, Canadian cottage cheese production was virtually unchanged. Then, between 2023 and 2024, it jumped by just over 18%. (Cottage Industry)
🚁 Last year, Canada joined a handful of countries on a roadmap for the certification of advanced air mobility aircraft, like electric air taxis. (Ready for Take-Off)
👨💻 SickKids found that students’ odds of meeting reading and math standards dropped by 10% for every additional hour of screen time. (Avert Your Eyes)
WORLD
Can Africa’s economic growth outpace Asia’s?
Source: Image generated with Canva AI.
Two global economies might be trading places (kind of).
Driving the news: Sub-Saharan Africa’s GDP is pegged to grow by 4.4% this year per a recent IMF report. The same report projects Asian GDP growth to slow to 4.1%, setting the stage for Africa’s economy to grow faster than Asia’s for the first time in modern history.
The IMF also predicts that 11 of the 15 fastest-growing economies in 2026 will be African. The highest-ranked African nation is South Sudan, with projected GDP growth of 22.4%.
Why it’s happening: African economic growth isn’t going to set the world on fire, but it’s poised to achieve some consistent gains thanks to a weakened U.S. dollar, which makes it easier to service dollar-denominated debt, and booming commodity prices (chiefly gold and copper).
Africa is estimated to have as much as 40% of the world’s gold; a newly proposed Pan-African Gold Bank looks to keep control over the resource within the continent.
Meanwhile, Asia has become richer, which usually comes with slower growth. Its main economic driver, China, has been growing more slowly even as it continues to catch up to the world’s wealthiest nations.
Why it matters: Whether or not it surpasses Asia’s GDP growth this year, Sub-Saharan Africa is primed to have a larger impact on the global economy going forward. By 2050, one in four people will be African, a larger share than China and India combined. With such an outsized share of the global workforce, Africa’s GDP will become the world’s business.—QH
INTERNATIONAL AISLE
Source: DIA TV / Shutterstock.
🇻🇪 Trump says he cancelled additional attacks on Venezuela. The president wrote that a “previously expected Second Wave of Attacks” [sic] were no longer necessary as Venezuela cooperated and released political prisoners. Meanwhile, Trump indicated in an interview that Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado would visit D.C. next week. (Reuters)
🇺🇸 Fallout continues after fatal ICE shooting in Minneapolis. Protests stirred across U.S. cities following the killing of 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good by an ICE agent. The investigation has been mired by spats between federal and state authorities. Amid high tensions, two people were shot and injured by border agents in Oregon. (BBC News)
🇮🇷 Iran cuts internet and phone access as protests swell. Iran’s government shut down internet access and blocked international phone calls amid nationwide protests. At least 42 have been killed during the protests, which have expanded beyond initial economic grievances to include calls for the return of exiled Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi. (AP News)
🇨🇳 China escalates economic tensions with Japan. China launched a new export ban on certain goods to Japan with potential military purposes, citing Tokyo’s remilitarization goals. Relations between the two have been rocky since November, when Japan’s Prime Minister said that Japan would consider intervention if China launched an attack against Taiwan. (Reuters)
🇪🇺 EU-Mercosur trade deal done after 25 years of talks. EU member states approved a trade deal with the Mercosur bloc of Latin American countries; the European Parliament still needs to approve it. The deal would create the world's largest free trade area, covering around 700 million people, but has sparked backlash from European farmers. (Politico)—QH
TECH
Grok in hot water over explicit deepfakes of kids
Source: Algi Febri Sugita / Shutterstock.
We are genuinely sorry to start your Saturday off on this note, but this is a business newsletter after all, and this is an important business story, so here goes…
What happened: Elon Musk’s AI company, xAI, said it had restricted usage of Grok to paid subscribers after facing days of criticism that the chatbot was being used to generate sexualized deepfake images on X, including of children.
European leaders threatened action against X over the deepfake images, and British officials said the company’s move to limit Grok’s image generation feature to paying customers was “not a solution” and “simply turns an AI feature that allows the creation of unlawful images into a premium service.”
Plus, X may not have even done what it claimed and paywalled the feature — as of yesterday, reporters were still able to find multiple ways to easily generate sexualized deepfakes with free accounts.
Why it matters: Musk has pitched Grok as an AI model with fewer safety guardrails, and it certainly is that — but rather than making the model “maximally truth-seeking,” as Musk has claimed, removing those guardrails has made it a handy tool for extremely unpleasant (and, in some cases, criminal) behaviour.
Laws concerning deepfakes are still patchy. In Canada, sexualized deepfake images of minors are banned under child pornography laws, but when adults are depicted, it’s more of a grey area.
Our take: This is one of the more disgusting uses of AI, but unfortunately one that was entirely predictable, and a company that gave its chatbot a “spicy mode” deserves its share of the blame. We expect laws against this sort of activity to be among the first and most widely adopted regulations of the technology. —TS
WEEKENDER
Eat a sweet potato stuffed with cheese. One of the year’s early viral food trends is maddeningly simple. Devised by a teacher in Georgia as a quick desk snack, all you have to do is stuff some butterkäse (a creamy German cheese) into a baked sweet potato. Voilà!
Read Off the Scales by Aimee Donnellan. Reuters journalist Aimee Donnellan gives an in-depth history of the development of Ozempic, looking at both Big Pharma’s obsession with “curing” obesity and the long-tail effects that GLP-1 drugs have unleashed on the world.
Watch Is This Thing On? now in theatres. Bradley Cooper’s new film, about a regular Joe who tries stand-up amid marital distress, is a welcome refresh from his Oscar-baiting opuses. It also gives Canadian funnyman Will Arnett a deserved chance to flex his dramatic chops.
Listen to Secret Love by Dry Cleaning. The popular British quartet has a sound that just works. Frontwoman Florence Shaw sing-speaks cryptic, caustic verses in a deadpan intonation, which is perfectly complemented by an intricate post-punk backing. Their third album is another winner.—QH
WAIT, THERE’S MORE
Canada’s unemployment rate rose to 6.8% in December from 6.5% the previous month. The increase in the number of people looking for work outpaced the 8,200 net jobs added.
The U.S. Supreme Court will issue rulings on a case challenging Donald Trump’s tariffs next week.
Eutelsat, a company mostly owned by the British and French governments, is pitching Canada on using its satellites for internet coverage in the Arctic.
Ontario is suing Keel Digital Solutions, a company that received Skills Development Fund grants, claiming it defrauded the province.
Meta is backing a number of nuclear energy projects to secure enough power for its planned data centres.
NASA is cutting a space station mission short because of a serious medical condition affecting one of its astronauts.
PEAK PICKS
Toronto and Calgary are getting running leagues where you could win free burritos for a year.
Got ink? The “tattourism” travel trend is on the rise.
Three easy ways to ensure you’re getting enough Vitamin D this winter.
Read: The Chinese worker robots taking over workers’ most mundane tasks.
Watch: Five sauces that every chef should know how to make.
A psychology expert shares the best way to deal with a manipulator.
SATURDAY CARTOON
Artwork by Hailey Ferguson.
Congratulations to the winners of last week's cartoon caption contest and thanks to everyone who submitted!
Want to see this week's cartoon and try your hand at another caption? Click here and give us your best witticism.
GAMES
We’ve got a full slate of games for you this lovely Saturday: The Peak’s Saturday Crossword, the daily sudoku, and the bonus mini for our games testers — please keep reporting bugs!
Then, the headline challenge has returned, and you must pick out the fake news item.
“Stop Sending Butt Plugs to Bahrain”: Toronto Sex Store Receives Letters From U.S. Department of War.
A Rare Group of “Genius Dogs” Can Learn New Words by Eavesdropping, Study Finds.
Cops Forced to Explain Why AI-Generated Police Report Claimed Officer Transformed Into Frog.
Lighthouse Keeper Cracks Top 10 in Survey of Kids’ Most Desired Jobs.
Keep scrolling for the answer.
ANSWER
Watch out! #4 is the fake headline.